A number of career Foreign Service officers were informed this week that they will not be asked to stay on in senior or sensitive posts creating a leadership vacuum among the top ranks at the State Department.washingtonpost.com(See also First 100 Days, Department of State)

"Current and former senior officials were clear that the turnover is unusual even for a new administration"

"In normal times, an Administration this isolated and divorced from public opinion would seem to be fatally weak. The argument made by the President’s first week is that these conditions, combined with the general assent of a Republican-controlled Congress, might in fact create the opposite situation, freeing him to do whatever he wants."

"Legislators expressed doubt on Monday that CBP was in fact in compliance with the court orders. The day before, four members of Congress were denied access to detained visa holders at Dulles international airport who were not processed through immigration despite the order – something a Virginia Democrat termed a constitutional crisis."

The day after it went into effect, a federal judge said customs officials at Dulles had to provide detained travelers access to lawyers.

2017.02.10

Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct according to Homeland Security internal report.in.reuters.com(See also First 100 Days, Mexico Wall)

In an unusual move Betsy DeVos opts to be guarded by U.S. Marshals Service instead of a team of civil servants.washingtonpost.com(See also Betsy DeVos)

2017.02.18

A new version of Trump's immigration ban that could be issued as early as Tuesday will not stop green card holders, nor travelers in transit, according to Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly.reuters.com(See also John Kelly, Muslim Immigration Ban)

2017.02.18

The White House distances itself from a Department of Homeland Security draft proposal to use the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants.apnews.com(See also Immigrants)

A three-page DHS report casts doubt on need for Trump travel ban, saying citizenship is an “unreliable” threat indicator, and people from the banned countries have rarely been implicated in U.S.-based terrorism.washingtonpost.com(See also First 100 Days, Muslim Immigration Ban)

2017.02.24

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says he doesn't believe it's possible to accomplish Trump's plans to hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents and 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enforce executive orders on immigration in the next couple of years.npr.org(See also First 100 Days, Immigration, John Kelly)

2017.02.24

Mexican Interior Secretary does not mince words when speaking alongside Rex Tillerson and John Kelly in Mexico City Thursday, saying: "We do not agree on the different measures that recently were stated by the government of the United States (that) affect Mexico."cnn.com(See also First 100 Days, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, Department of State, Mexico)

2017.02.25

Analysts at the Homeland Security Department's intelligence arm conclude that citizenship is an "unlikely indicator" of terrorism threats to the United States and that few people from the countries Trump listed in his travel ban have carried out attacks or been involved in terrorism-related activities in the U.S. since Syria's civil war started in 2011.apnews.com(See also First 100 Days, Muslim Immigration Ban)

The Department of Homeland Security has delayed the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule, and has signaled its intent to eliminate the rule completely.axios.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Immigration)

The rule would have allowed foreign entrepreneurs to come to the U.S. to start companies.

Weeks before a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to three deaths and 19 injuries, the Trump administration revoked a grant to Life After Hate, a group that works to de-radicalize neo-Nazis.huffingtonpost.com(See also Racism, Anti-Semitism, Muslims)

2017.08.16

The Trump administration formally terminated an Obama-era program that granted Central American minors temporary legal residence in the United States, shutting the door on 2,714 people who had already won conditional approval to enter the country.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration)

2017.08.25

More than one-quarter of a panel tasked with advising the Homeland Security Department on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection resigned en masse, citing Trump’s “insufficient attention” to the nation’s cyber vulnerabilities, his response to racist violence in Charlottesville, withdrawing from the Paris Accord, among other complaints.defenseone.com(See also Racism, Nationalism, Environment, John Kelly)

2017.09.05

According to the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers may use the information that DACA recipients gave the government as a means of gaining temporary protection to, instead, find and deport them.thedailybeast.com(See also Immigration)

The Trump administration is considering reducing the number of refugees admitted to the country over the next year to below 50,000, the lowest number since at least 1980.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Supreme Court)

The Trump administration will allow no more than 45,000 refugees into the United States next year, in what would be the lowest admissions level in more than a decade.apnews.com(See also Immigration, Foreign Policy)

2017.10.04

Immigrant rights activists are working overtime to help protect some of the nearly 160,000 young undocumented people whose protected status is at risk because of the Trump administrationmic.com(See also Immigration)

2017.10.04

The Trump administration didn't notify immigrants about an abrupt deadline to renew DACA.vox.com(See also Immigration)

2017.10.05

White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly’s personal cellphone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December, raising concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly’s phone while he was secretary of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing.politico.com(See also Administration Errors, John Kelly)

2017.10.11

The Department of Homeland Security is quietly exploring ways it could transform the US immigration system without Congress, including limiting protections for unaccompanied minors who come to the US illegally, expanding the use of speedy deportation proceedings, and tightening visa programs in ways that could limit legal immigration to the US.cnn.com(See also Immigration, Immigrants)

2017.11.09

As the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called acting secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them.washingtonpost.com(See also John Kelly, Immigration)

2017.11.15

Donald Trump signed two executive orders soon after his inauguration calling for the Department of Homeland Security to hire thousands of new Border Patrol and immigration agents, but the department has not only fallen short on hiring efforts, and they also can’t provide data to show how it would use additional agents — or that there’s even a need for them.fivethirtyeight.com(See also Immigration)

2017.12.01

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to begin accepting applications for foreign entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. under the International Entrepreneur Rule, blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to delay implementation of the Obama-era policy.geekwire.com(See also Immigration, Legal Issues)

2017.12.05

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Kirstjen M. Nielsen as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, installing a close confidant of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to lead the federal agency responsible for carrying out many of Donald Trump’s most ambitious domestic policy plans.washingtonpost.com(See also John Kelly, Trump Cabinet)

The Trump administration has canceled the provisional residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration)

2018.01.08

The Trump administration would cut or delay funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and customs agents in its upcoming spending plan to curb illegal immigration — all proven security measures that officials and experts have said are more effective than building a wall along the Mexican border.nytimes.com(See also Mexico Wall, Immigration)

2018.01.09

The White House intends to destroy voter data collected by the election fraud commission recently shut down by Donald Trump, rather than transfer it to the Department of Homeland Security or the National Archives and Records Administration.politico.com(See also Corruption, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression)

2018.01.18

Haitian farmers and other laborers seeking to come to the United States through temporary work visas will no longer be eligible.mcclatchydc.com(See also Racism, Jobs)

The waiver excludes rules from major laws including the National Environment Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Act, among others.

2018.02.08

The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.nbcnews.com(See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.02.27

The American Civil Liberties Union accused the U.S. government of unlawfully separating a Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter by holding them in different immigration facilities, two time zones apart, after they sought asylum four months ago.apnews.com(See also Immigration)

The child was taken away "screaming and crying, pleading with guards not to take her away from her mother."

2018.03.23

Donald Trump on Friday issued orders to ban transgender troops who require surgery or significant medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases.politico.com(See also Department of Defense, LGBTQIA)

2018.03.27

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will let the Deferred Enforced Departure status for Liberians expire on March 31st as is scheduled and will not extend legal protection for them to remain in the U.S.axios.com(See also Nationalism)

The Department of Homeland Security has recently announced the end of Temporary Protective Status for those from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan.

2018.03.28

Immigrants who accept almost any form of welfare or public benefit, even popular tax deductions, could be denied legal U.S. residency according to a draft under proposal awaiting approval by the Trump administration, which is seeking to reduce the number of foreigners living in the United States.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration, Immigrants)

It could affect immigrants protected by DACA if they attempt to file for full legal residency.

2018.04.04

The security advocacy group Global Cyber Alliance tested the 26 email domains managed by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and found that only one fully implements a security protocol that verifies the emails as genuinely from the White House.axios.com(See also Hypocrisy, Cybersecurity)

Of the 26 domains, 18 are not in compliance with a Department of Homeland Security directive to implement that protocol.

2018.04.05

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”biglawbusiness.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

Note that this is not from the Communications Office, but from the Department of Homeland Security.

2018.04.24

A federal judge ruled that the protections for DACA must stay in place and that the government must resume accepting new applications.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Legal Activity)

The judge rejected the government’s assertion that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was unlawful.

2018.05.07

The Trump administration will unveil a new border enforcement policy which will separate parents from their children if caught.latimes.com(See also Immigration)

The Department of Homeland Security has officially proposed cancelling the International Entrepreneur Rule, which allows foreign entrepreneurs to legally stay in the U.S. to build their companies, provided they meet a host of business requirements.axios.com(See also Economy, Jobs)

2018.06.05

Border agents and child welfare workers are running out of space to shelter children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border as part of the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy, as nearly 300 of the 550 children currently in custody at U.S. border stations had spent more than 72 hours there, the time limit for immigrants of any age to be held in the government's temporary facilities, half of which are younger than 12.nbcnews.com(See also Immigration, Department of Health and Human Services)

2018.06.15

About 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the border over a six-week period during a new "zero tolerance policy" on illegal entries, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security figures.apnews.com(See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions)

2018.06.18

Amid growing backlash over the administration's policy resulting in family separation, the head of the Department of Homeland Security repeated a statement Trump officials have made to justify their tough stance on immigration: There is a crisis at the border, but according to DHS statistics for recent years, there has actually been a steady decline in border apprehensions over the past two decades.buzzfeed.com(See also False Statements, Immigration, Jeff Sessions)

2018.06.18

The Trump administration said that it had separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period, as Donald Trump sought to shift blame for the widely criticized practice that has become the signature policy of his aggressive immigration agenda.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Unprecedented Actions, Jeff Sessions)

Federal authorities have acknowledged for the first time Thursday that of the nearly 3,000 children who are still in federal custody, about 100 are under the age of 5, while the Department of Homeland Security confirms that records linking children to their parents have disappeared, and in some cases have been destroyed.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Administration Errors, Department of Health and Human Services)

2018.07.09

The Trump administration lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Legal Activity)

2018.07.12

The Trump administration is implementing a new asylum policy at the border that will result in potentially thousands of asylum seekers being turned away before they can plead their case in court, as claims based on fear of gang and domestic violence will be immediately rejected, and the guidance tells officers they should consider whether an immigrant crossed the border illegally and weigh that against their claim, potentially rejecting even legitimate fears of persecution if the immigrant crossed illegally.cnn.com(See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions)

Homeland Security officials may have neglected to give a choice to as many as three-quarters of all migrant parents removed from the United States about leaving their children behind, contradicting repeated public assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.politico.com(See also False Statements, Immigration)

The Trump administration this summer quietly redirected $200 million from all over the Department of Homeland Security to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, despite repeated congressional warnings of ICE's "lack of fiscal discipline" and "unsustainable" spending.cnn.com(See also Immigration)

2018.09.22

Trump administration officials announced that immigrants who legally use public benefits like food assistance and Section 8 housing vouchers could be denied green cards under new rules aimed at keeping out people the administration deems a drain on the country.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Immigrants, Americans in Poverty, Racism)

A rule proposed by the Trump administration could force immigrants seeking permanent resident status to prove they will never become reliant on government assistance.

2018.09.25

A memo signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen contradicts statements she made at the height of the family separation crisis last spring that the administration did not have a policy of separating children from parents, as Nielsen personally signed off on the option to prosecute all adults who crossed the border illegally, including those with kids, knowing it would lead to family separations.buzzfeednews.com(See also False Statements, Immigration)

Kirstjen Nielsen maintained the administration did not enact a family separation policy, but a memo she signed stated that the “zero tolerance” policy would have that effect.

Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases. But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.

2018.10.02

The Department of Homeland Security was so unprepared for the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that its computer systems were unable to track family members separated at the Mexican border and the agency held migrant children in detention centers far longer than the law allowed.nytimes.com(See also Administration Errors, Immigration)

2018.10.02

The inability of immigration authorities to handle the number of people legally seeking asylum at ports of entry along the US border likely forces many to cross into the country illegally.buzzfeednews.com(See also Immigration)

2018.10.04

A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration from ending special protections for immigrants from four countries devastated by war and natural disaster, temporarily relieving more than 300,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan from the threat of deportation.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, Racism, Legal Activity, Department of Justice)

2018.10.09

Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so, but an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families — without notifying their parents.apnews.com(See also Immigration, Department of Justice)

Homeland Security and Pentagon officials said Monday that they will send 5,200 troops, military helicopters and giant spools of razor wire to the Mexican border in the coming days to brace for the arrival of Central American migrants President Trump is calling “an invasion.”washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration, Racism, Mexico)

The US soon will have more troops along the Mexican border than it has fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The asylum approval rate is just over 33% for the 2018 fiscal year. Under the Obama administration, the rate hovered between 44% and 55%. The last time the rate dipped below 33% was in 1999, during the Bill Clinton administration, when it was 31%.

2018.11.05

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said Monday that the US military will not be "involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States."cnn.com(See also Immigration, Mexico)

When asked about the border mission for active-duty troops, Dunford said the military will not be coming into contact with migrants traveling toward the border.

2018.11.08

The Trump administration introduced new measures to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally, invoking national security powers to curb long-standing humanitarian protections for foreigners arriving on American soil, which now apply indefinitely.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration, Nationalism, Mexico)

2018.11.12

Unaccompanied children who cross the US–Mexico border illegally will no longer have the right to apply for asylum under new changes instituted by the Trump administration, a shift in previous practice and a major restriction to how minors apply for protections in the country.buzzfeednews.com(See also Immigration, Mexico, Racism)

A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration, Mexico)

In a letter to Customs and Border Protection, senior Democrats said the closed-door testimony raised questions about whether the administration is obeying the law.

2018.12.20

The Trump administration, mired in a battle with Congress over funding of a border wall, announced that the United States would begin requiring people seeking asylum at the southwest border to wait in Mexico for a court ruling on their cases.nytimes.com(See also Mexico, Immigration, Department of State, Mike Pompeo)

The Trump administration has given nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in the United States 18 months to leave, announcing that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that has allowed them to remain in this country.washingtonpost.com(See also Racism, Immigrants)